Chicago City Budget

[HuskyCaucasian]

WGN news reported this morning that of the $1.15 billion brought in by the parking meter sale, only a little over $180 million remains. It was supposed to last decades.

Edited July 21, 2010 by lostfan

[lostfan]

Those projections were probably made before the city had huge deficits though.

[NorthSideSox72]

Those projections were probably made before the city had huge deficits though.

And that was in fact the exact use they had pegged it for - money in down times, to avoid tax increases.

 

Also, this is vastly different from what was said only a few months ago, so I am curious to read more. I'll look around I guess.

 

[Controlled Chaos]

WASTE WASTE WASTE...hate to change the topic, I just don't think I should start a new thread on this.

 

This s*** below is waste. I would love to see a $ figure here. Department of Public Health gives money to a health communications foundation, who gives money to an advertising company, who produces an ad that lasts 3 weeks. First off why is there even a middle company here. If the department of health wants to fund an ad...do they not have the resources to deal with an ad firm directly? 2) Do we really need Aids awareness ads still?? Is there anyone in this country not aware of AIDS and how it's transmitted? Billboards along expressways and streets, posters in the bathrooms of gay bars, public service announcements on television and radio, and a new Web site all to announce you can get aids from unprotected sex. really?? This is the s*** that drives me nuts...This would be an unacceptable use of funds if we had a surplus, but the fact the state is pinchin Lincoln so hard makes it absolutely insane.

 

HIV prevention campaign ends after outcry

 

Chicago Tribune - May 13, 2010

Dawn Turner Trice

 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In March, Jeff Ramone was invited to participate in a splashy, state-funded ad campaign to encourage people to get tested for HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases.

The Andersonville resident was told that the new campaign was paid for by the Illinois Department of Public Health and would launch in April to great fanfare: billboards along Chicago-area expressways and streets, posters in the bathrooms of gay bars, public service announcements on television and radio, and interactive material on a vibrant new Web site.

 

Now, just a few weeks after the ad's launch, the department has demanded that the Web site (hesthe1.com) be shut down and is scurrying to have the ads removed after receiving a flood of phone calls from people who said they found the campaign highly offensive.

 

The problem stems from one of the campaign's prominent pictures: It's the likeness of a man whose face has been pieced together using parts of four men's faces. Ramone's face makes up the top left quadrant of the image.

 

Above the face, in large type, are the words: "he's the one." Below the face, in smaller lettering, resides the kicker: "that could infect you."

 

Ramone, who is gay, said he was a bit surprised at the final product -- and the controversy, which has been playing out in the gay blogosphere and even in a YouTube parody.

 

"I thought (the ad) was going to say, 'Is he the one?'" Ramone, 36, said Thursday. "But then it turned out 'he's the one,' which is a more declarative statement, which is what has rattled a lot of cages."

 

Though the ad did have its supporters, many of its detractors continue to sound off. Some feared that the ad might stigmatize those who are HIV-positive, making them less likely to divulge their HIV status.

 

Others viewed the ad as reminiscent of the scare tactics used by HIV-prevention activists in the 1980s and 1990s. They said the ad demonized HIV-positive gay men by portraying them as frightening Frankenstein monster types.

 

"To put it in this context is to create fear and distrust that suggests, 'Is this the guy who's going to do this to me?'" said Ramone, who wrote about his involvement in the campaign in his blog, TheUngayGuy.com. "One gets the sense that maybe there weren't a lot of public health people who intervened on this one."

 

A Department of Public Health spokeswoman said the agency did not know the specifics of the campaign, though it was responsible for funding it. Hence the line, "Paid for by the Illinois Department of Public Health," which appeared at the bottom of the ad.

 

"Our HIV section has been getting calls and they've been listening to constituents who say they did not agree with the ad," said Melanie Arnold, the spokeswoman. "When we saw (the ad) we were not pleased with it either. We want to make sure people know the IDPH didn't approve this ad and we've been trying to get it out of circulation and make it go away."

 

Arnold said that while the department wants to educate people and make them aware of HIV prevention measures, the ads missed the mark.

 

So why is the department's name figured so prominently on the bottom?

 

Arnold told me that the agency had given funding to a health communications foundation, which contracted with an advertising company that actually created the ads. Messages left at phone numbers listed for the two entities were not returned.

 

Arnold said the department is still scrambling to find out more about the ads. On Thursday, she couldn't tell me how much the campaign cost or how widely the ads had been distributed.

 

Ramone believes the "he's the one" campaign may have worked better if it had been framed in a way that inspired people to think about how to keep from getting infected.

 

But not everybody has been unhappy with the ad.

 

Andrew Fisher is a gay man who feels strongly about spreading the word about HIV prevention. He cites statistics from a 2008 Chicago Department of Public Health study that found 1 in 5 gay men in Chicago is HIV-positive, and that infection rates among minorities are much higher than among whites.

 

Fisher, who told me he saw the ad on a billboard in Boystown, said the effort to put condoms in fishbowls in gay bars hasn't been effective enough.

 

"If the ad scared people, shaking them awake, I'm all for it," he said. "I'm not necessarily (for) that ad, but I thought it made people think. I was eager to see that rather than passivity. I admired its no-holds-barred, person-to-person approach. I don't think we need to cower on such an important topic."

 

[Balta1701]

Do we really need Aids awareness ads still?? Is there anyone in this country not aware of AIDS and how it's transmitted?

 

Yes, and Yes.

 

AIDS has been hammering the poor and particularly the African American community in this country for about a decade. Most of the rest of the country stopped paying attention after 1996 when the modern cocktail of drugs came out, but that segment of society is still being ravaged. There was a beautiful example of this effect that I still remember in the 2004 Vice Presidential debate; Gwen Ifill (an African American) asked John Edwards and then Dick Cheney explicitly about what steps they'd take to help with the rate of AIDS infections in the African American community in this country, and both of them gave answers about Africa because they knew nothing about what was happening in the U.S.

 

The number of new AIDS cases in this country actually bottomed out in the early 2000's, and in a number of places the infection rate has actually been increasing for the past decade. Including in Chicago.

 

Worth noting in addition...like many public health campaigns...if an anti-AIDS infection campaign is even remotely successful, it's not going to cost you a thing, it's going to save a ton of money, because having people get AIDS, especially poor people, is tremendously expensive, both for the government and Society. If you're spending a couple million on an ad campaign and change the circumstances enough that a couple dozen people don't get infected, you've likely just paid for the entire campaign.

[NorthSideSox72]

That doesn't mean that a city strapped for cash and basic services should be paying for ads about it either. Especially when the effectivity of the ads is highly questionable anyway. The schools should be addressing it most definitely, but if I were on the city council looking for money to cut, this would definitely be on my list. I'd rather cut it than, say, money for schools or police/fire/EMS.

 

[Balta1701]

That doesn't mean that a city strapped for cash and basic services should be paying for ads about it either.

Basic services, like say, public health clinics that wind up treating the new HIV infections?

[Controlled Chaos]

Yes, and Yes.

 

AIDS has been hammering the poor and particularly the African American community in this country for about a decade. Most of the rest of the country stopped paying attention after 1996 when the modern cocktail of drugs came out, but that segment of society is still being ravaged. There was a beautiful example of this effect that I still remember in the 2004 Vice Presidential debate; Gwen Ifill (an African American) asked John Edwards and then Dick Cheney explicitly about what steps they'd take to help with the rate of AIDS infections in the African American community in this country, and both of them gave answers about Africa because they knew nothing about what was happening in the U.S.

 

The number of new AIDS cases in this country actually bottomed out in the early 2000's, and in a number of places the infection rate has actually been increasing for the past decade. Including in Chicago.

 

Worth noting in addition...like many public health campaigns...if an anti-AIDS infection campaign is even remotely successful, it's not going to cost you a thing, it's going to save a ton of money, because having people get AIDS, especially poor people, is tremendously expensive, both for the government and Society. If you're spending a couple million on an ad campaign and change the circumstances enough that a couple dozen people don't get infected, you've likely just paid for the entire campaign.

Show me the graph where these people are unware of how AIDS is transmitted. You can't put the f***in condom on for them.

[Balta1701]

Show me the graph where these people are unware of how AIDS is transmitted. You can't put the f***in condom on for them.

With this June marking the 25th year of the epidemic (on June 5, 1981, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued its first warning about a disease that would become known as AIDS), there is an opportunity to reflect on the public’s general knowledge about the disease. According to the survey results, significant percentages of Americans still think HIV might be spread through kissing, sharing a drinking glass and touching toilet seat -- 37%, 22% and 16% respectively.

Link

[bmags]

Show me the graph where these people are unware of how AIDS is transmitted. You can't put the f***in condom on for them.

 

i'd like to see these poor peoples awareness in DC and Chicago of whether they still know how big of a threat HIV is.

[NorthSideSox72]

Link

And again, these ads will do next to nothing to address the lack of knowledge.

 

[Balta1701]

And again, these ads will do next to nothing to address the lack of knowledge.

Seems to me like it's gotten attention.

[bmags]

And again, these ads will do next to nothing to address the lack of knowledge.

 

they also have street teams.

[whitesoxfan101]

I find it absolutely shocking that so many people are still that ignorant as to how AIDS is transmitted.

Edited July 21, 2010 by whitesoxfan101

[Balta1701]

I find it absolutely shocking that so many people are still that ignorant as to how AIDS is transmitted.

I don't in the least.

[Controlled Chaos]

Someone go to boystown for a night...interview 1000 people and ask them how is AIDS transmitted? I think you'll find 1000/1000 get it right. This was a WASTE of money that could have be better spent elsewhere.

[bmags]

shockingly, people other than the gay community get AIDS. Specifically very poor areas and rising totals in the black community (also senior citizens).

[whitesoxfan101]

I don't in the least.

 

Am I just giving people too much credit?

[southsider2k5]

Link

 

I'm not interested in the people who think you can get it disproved ways, I am interested in the people who don't realize you can get it through unprotected sex. How many of those people are still out there? I can't imagine that people who think you can get it ridiculous ways, don't think you can get it through sex, right?

[southsider2k5]

shockingly, people other than the gay community get AIDS. Specifically very poor areas and rising totals in the black community (also senior citizens).

 

If they know that you can get it through unprotected sex, than no amount of education is going to help.

[bmags]

If they know that you can get it through unprotected sex, than no amount of education is going to help.

 

I disagree. If there is a general feeling that AIDS is something that happens "over there" or with others, educating them about how it's real and passed in your community would help.

[Balta1701]

I disagree. If there is a general feeling that AIDS is something that happens "over there" or with others, educating them about how it's real and passed in your community would help.

Furthermore, in the specific community we're talking about here, discussion of such things really is taboo.

[bmags]

an AIDS re-emergence isn't really something you want in your city/nation. In recessions things like this can happen.

[southsider2k5]

I disagree. If there is a general feeling that AIDS is something that happens "over there" or with others, educating them about how it's real and passed in your community would help.

 

If they know AIDS is passed on by unprotected sex, what is left to know? The only other thing you can teach them is that the way to ensure they will never get AIDS is to not have sex at all, and since you can't teach that, what else is there?

 

If they have figures that say how many people think AIDS is passed on through all of the ridculous ways that were sighted, how many think you can get it through unprotected sex?

[bmags]

where testing facilities are, where you can go for help if you have AIDS, pass out free protection, offer counseling etc. A big part of the battle is getting people tested.